Gov. Abbott optimistic about the Covid-19 wave, but health experts say Texas will hit record number of hospitalizations

Covid-19 ICU bedsDaily Sabah

Texas – The latest Covid-19 wave has no intensions to slow down and the number of daily positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths is growing in Texas.

But according to UT Southwestern researchers, the worst is yet to come claiming the state will see an increase in the number of hospitalizations and will reach record high numbers since the start of the pandemic very soon.

Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has more optimistic approach to the issue.

According to him, everyone can see the lowering trend of people testing positive out of all conducted tests in the last couple of days. But despite that fact, the numbers are still very high, a totally unexpected turn with the pandemic.

More than 3,200 people in North Texas are in the hospital fighting COVID-19.

Texas hospitals are lately operating to their limits and healthcare workers are slowly reaching breaking point following a decent period working extra hours and double shifts. The ICU beds availability is also very low in some hospitals.

According to the DFW Hospital Council, nearly half of all adult ICU patients are suffering from COVID-19. This percentage is more or less very similar to majority of the hospitals.

If this trend continues, in September Texas will record the highest number of daily cases and hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic despite all the efforts from the public to protect themselves.

Another big issue for the hospitals is healthcare workers. According to some hospitals in Tarrant County, despite the fact that they have ICU beds available, they don’t have enough staff right now to take care of patients. Tarrant County currently has the largest number of Covid-19 patients treated in the hospitals across the state.

"There are ICU beds that can’t be staffed right now so they can’t be available right now," said Tarrant County Judge Clay Jenkins.

Cook Children’s in Fort Worth announced that a record number of patients at its urgent care clinics caused online bookings to halt.

Texas Gov. Abbott on Twitter on Tuesday said he is happy to see a small decrease in the positivity rate. He also believes the number of cases will go down soon. However, his tweet seems to be nothing but short-term propaganda for himself.

Health experts don’t agree with him though. Dr. Marcial Oquendo with the Dallas County Medical Society says it’s too soon to predict a decline.

"We are still going up," he said. "We anticipate it will come down because that’s natural and we’ve seen that pretty much in other countries with a delta spike."

Texas is among the states that are seeing a huge increase in cases. Florida and Arkansas for instance, are also facing similar issues while trying to put the recent surge in control.

According to MDMH – Pine Bluff, a local news outlet from Arkansas, the daily cases and hospitalizations are expected to hit new, record high numbers in September despite Arkansas health officials’ efforts to increase the number of ICU beds. The state is running out of ICU beds for more than two weeks now.

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